ELS Educational Services Reviews

This company is the worst company that I have ever worked for in terms of their unseasoned, unprofessional leadership and it’s only gotten worse because the business is suffering tremendously and that’s when you can see the true colors of the company. Many of the lower level employees are very nice people, but they are okay with status quo and don’t care about professional growth and driving change to improve company performance. The leadership often treat their employees without the due respect as was my case, PHQ is very disconnected to the centers, and the only leaders that really have a voice are the ones who have been there for way too long (and have no idea how the real world works in terms of best practices, current trends, innovation, and strategy.) The leadership acts like they want to change, but they really don't. You have leaders who have been there 20-30+ years, and they know how to please and present to the Japanese parent company and that is what continues there. HR doesn’t bring expertise and governance to the table, they are at the mercy of the leadership, and so you don’t see “normal” HR practices being implemented here where HR should be a bridge vs. a puppet. They are an education company, but they have VPs and directors in positions who are not qualified or have the appropriate educational background (i.e. a college degree) for their positions, and who are running things in a “fly by the seat of your pants” way without knowledge of how to appropriately create and execute on an innovative strategy. They are constantly trying to catch up to their innovative competitors and the only way they know how to drive down cost is by closing centers and letting people go. No investments are made for the long term to drive process improvement and innovation to grow the top line, because the financial leadership views everything as a cost vs. some being an investment. Many decisions are literally being made in bi-annual meetings and other ad-hoc meetings where people “vote” with post-it notes and “thumbs-ups.” For years, they have been trying to figure out what kind of company they are and no one wants to make a decision because the old guard will likely push out any new person with new thinking and no one wants to be held accountable. During my tenure there, countless people were pushed out (either let go or left on their own) because they were smart, forward thinking, acclimated to industry best practices, and challenged the old guard, especially in finance, technology, and operations functions. More recently, the company has even become more of a boys club, with only one woman in a leadership position who makes sure that no other woman gets an opportunity. The women there are primary in lower positions, with only a few (excellent) women in manager or director roles only in certain groups, but who will never be given a better opportunity due to the closed gates there. Only men get promoted, and they don’t necessarily need to be well qualified for their role, they just have to know how to brown nose and have to have been there for a long time. I took the time to write this review because I sincerely want to make sure you think hard about taking a job here. As soon as I left I got it all back and much more – a new challenging role, smart colleagues and leadership, respect, better compensation and benefits, and long term growth and excitement for me professionally.

I'll start out by saying that those giving this company 5 stars are definitely plants from corporate, desperate for naive teachers, because the company is not doing well, thanks to the Saudi government refusing to pay scholarships for students not interested in going to class. They used to depend on that. ELS is a toxic environment. Like other reviewers have said, you only get paid for time in the classroom, even if you spend 4 hours grading essays on a Saturday and an hour or more per weeknight making tests and grading papers. As a teacher, you have homework and it adds up. ELS says you're "salaried" but that salary changes if you teach less hours, and they have found some kind of loophole so as not to pay you for the extra hours worked outside school. There's no bank of tests or lesson plans developed by other teachers who have taught the same book so you have to make your own as you go, which is extremely stressful in 4-week sessions. There's absolutely no opportunity for career advancement, the administration is completely useless and is reluctant to punish students for bad behavior because it's for-profit, and there are monthly unpaid training sessions. If you have years of experience but no master's, you start off at one measly rate. If you have a master's with zero classroom experience, you get $8/hr more. Go teach English in Korea -- it's the same pay, but someone else pays for your apartment, so you really live the high life compared to ELS at a whopping $24,000 per year, and they don't take 20% taxes either.